A corporate whistleblower is an employee who reports illegal activities within a business to authorities, risking threats and harassment. They may inform authorities if internal attempts to correct the problem are ignored. Companies may use confidentiality agreements to silence whistleblowers. Legal protection is not comprehensive, so legal experts recommend contacting an attorney. Famous whistleblowers, such as Jeffery Wigand and David Franklin, have had a significant impact on policy and enforcement.
A corporate whistleblower is a current or former employee of a business or corporation who chooses to report illegal activities within the business to the authorities. A corporate whistleblower can be idolized or demonized, held up as a great moral example or a fairy tale, depending on your opinion. Regardless of the motivation, a corporate whistleblower often accepts the risk of threats, harassment, and retribution by choosing to report illegal behavior.
Whistleblowers are generally privy to information that conclusively demonstrates, or at least strongly indicates, professional malpractice in the workplace. This can be evidence of insider trading, illegal business practices, or even practical discrimination in hiring practices. Usually, a corporate whistleblower will inform the authorities if attempts to correct the problem internally are ignored. In some cases, a whistleblower will choose to notify authorities instead of going through a normal chain of command, particularly if the company has a history of firing employees who choose to question the procedure.
Companies that are knowingly and intentionally engaging in illegal behavior are usually concerned with silencing anyone who seems likely to inform the authorities. Many take advantage of confidentiality agreements to threaten a worker’s position if he or she is considering reporting illegal behavior. Because confidentiality agreements usually extend beyond the duration of the employment relationship, employees who are fired or terminated may still be at risk of litigation for breach of their contracts. While some laws were created to protect whistleblowing employees, these are far from comprehensive and may not provide the protection needed to save a whistleblower’s job or professional reputation. For this reason, many legal experts recommend contacting an experienced attorney as soon as you decide to sue.
The stories of famous whistleblowers often detail the perilous path taken by those who choose to whistleblower about companies. Jeffery Wigand, who famously became a corporate whistleblower after discovering that the tobacco company he worked for included additives in his tobacco products that could increase addiction, claims he received death threats in the wake of going public with the allegations. information. A corporate whistleblower can still have a huge effect on policy and enforcement, as in the case of David Franklin, a microbiologist who exposed evidence that the pharmaceutical company he worked for was withholding evidence of a drug’s high failure rate to keep it on the market. Franklin’s effort as a corporate whistleblower led to numerous changes in the legal process of drug marketing in the United States.
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